As we noted last month, the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s October meeting suggested that the Fed was “likely to trim their monthly purchase of $85 billion in bonds “in [the] coming months,” perhaps even “before an unambiguous further improvement in the [economic] outlook [is] apparent.”
This afternoon the Fed announced it would cut its bond purchases by $10 billion a month beginning in January, an announcement that sent stock market indexes to all-time highs.
The Committee also announced it would likely keep the federal funds rate near zero “well past the time that the unemployment rate declines below 6-1/2 percent.” The 10-Year Treasury ended the day up 4 basis points.
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